After almost a month of a state of emergency and over 70 deaths during gun battles between the Jamaican armed forces and an underworld militia loyal to alleged drug lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, the man whose surname quite possibly spells out his line of business, is finally in the custody of Jamaican law enforcement authorities.
During the time he was being sought to be extradited to the USA where he will face trial for trafficking in cocaine, as well as being the ‘Capo’ (leader) of the ‘Shower Posse,’ a group responsible for the deaths of hundreds during the cocaine trade wars of the 1980s, unbelievable scenes from Tivoli Gardens, said to be his stronghold as well as that of the current administration, were laid bare for the world to see. His ‘army’ fought guerrilla style with Jamaican law enforcement to prevent his capture. Protestors, many of them women, took to the streets calling on the authorities to “leave Dudus alone.”
Politics took a blow with members of the current administration, including Prime Minister Bruce Golding, being forced to admit to having an association with Coke.
Like any shrewd businessman, Dudus had secured the loyalty of his clients and their families. His clients received their regular fixes of the deadly, addictive substance. Their families, and others in the area stricken by poverty, received food, money, clothing and an education compliments of Dudus’; not surprising then that so many of them were willing to lay down their lives for him. Call it a warped sense of loyalty if you will, but it is reasonable to see, if not accept, that for those who live/d it, it was/is a bread and butter issue. Oh indeed there were and still are political concerns at play here. But the larger picture shows that economics had the greater pull and that it by far outweighed morals and ethics. For his savvy and guile in gaining the support of many in Tivoli, Dudus has been compared to now dead head of the Medellin cartel in Colombia, Pablo Escobar.
In a short while, Dudus will likely be on his way to the US to stand trial and could be away from Jamaica for a number of years, which would allow for healing and the mending of fences or for another to take his place, depending on how the authorities play their cards.
In the 1960s, when Jamaica’s icon of folklore Louise Bennett-Coverley (Miss Lou) wrote the poem ‘Jamaica Elevate,’ she was referring to the strides the country had been making since gaining full independence in 1962. The poem proudly listed the country’s achievements. And written as it was, in the form of a letter from a Jamaican at home to another Jamaican, probably in self-inflicted exile elsewhere in the world: “Dear Mark, me know you eye dem dark /You glasses dem can’t read /But me haffe write an tell you /How Jamaica dah-proceed…”; it hinted at an entire nation working to make Jamaica ‘proceed.’ And ‘proceed’ it did.
Private capital saw huge investments in the tourism sector, making Ocho Rios and Montego Bay world renowned. With intellectual property rights (copyright) legislation in place and enforced, singers like Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley had the space to become great. Hollywood filmmakers took advantage of Jamaica’s proximity to the US and its almost year-round sunshine. Politics was always a passionate issue and violence surrounding political parties, particularly at election time sort of became the rule. However, a drug lord in Jamaica in the ’60s would have been someone who sold cannabis.
Somewhere along the way, though, as ‘Jamaica dah-proceed’ a significant number of the people got lost. Maybe they fell through the cracks and into the underworld ruled by Dudus and others like him.
The parallels are there and one can’t help but draw them. It is sufficient today, when one looks at Jamaica to paraphrase Bradford thus: ‘there but for grace of God goes Guyana.’
